Whenever we hear the word ‘Calories’, we associate it with a negative connotation. We start thinking, weight gain/obesity/health issues – not fair guys! Calories are actually an energy measure and are needed by our bodies to stay alive! Taking it from here I would like to play the devil’s advocate for liquid calories – couple of words that almost always lead to a cautionary article or talk about how they derail our calorie count. Hmmm.

Okay so calories are present in almost every food that we consume. Some come with other nutrients making it a healthy choice, others come by themselves, pushing the food down the list of must haves. Liquids we consume also come with the same rules. While choosing liquid calories, keep your health goals in mind.

Weight loss/ maintenance: If you are on a weight loss diet or want to control those extras to remain within the right weight range then choose from the list below.

Active life style: If you are into exercising daily or are a serious sports /workout athlete then you need fluids for meeting two essential needs.

Hydration:Fluids are extremely essential during exercising. Good hydration helps improve performance and prevents fatigue, protects against overheating of the body and thereby elevated heart rates. A standard thumb rule for your fluid needs is – Each kilogram (kg) of weight lost post a work out is equivalent to approximately one litre of fluid. For choosing the right fluid, sport science research has recommended that though water is a good choice, but depending on your intensity, duration and sport, you may very well need some carbohydrate and electrolytes to. Australian institute of sports nutrition states that for “brief” exercise lasting 45minutes or less there is no need for any supplement. Workouts of longer duration and intensity need a hydration plan and research has shown that cool beverages with some flavour and sodium are better tolerated as compared to water. The recommendations for choosing the right fluid are fluids or sports drinks that contain 4-8% carbohydrate, 10-20 mmol/L of sodium. While carbohydrates have been shown to enhance performance, excess of carbohydrates may cause abdominal discomfort.

Enhancing Nutritional intake: Intensive training needs more nourishment, but exhaustion and extended workouts may interfere with adequate intake. The guidelines for the Olympic committee’s Nutrition for athletes states that if you want to increase your energy intake and build muscle mass then “Drinks such as fruit smoothies, liquid meal supplements and fortified milkshakes and juices can provide a substantial source of energy and nutrients that are quick and compact to consume, and less likely to cause gastrointestinal discomfort than bulky foods.” A healthy carbohydrate and protein combination would provide 50-75 gram of Carbs and 15-20 gram protein.

With more than half of the United States population on a diet, weight loss is clearly on our minds. But should you include sex in your weight management plan? We investigate.

A healthy weight is part and parcel of a healthy lifestyle. Keeping our pounds in check is good for our ticker, our bones, and our lungs. It might even keep cancer at bay, as we found out this week.

But a staggering 73.7 percent of men and 66.9 percent of women in the U.S. are overweight or obese. Perhaps it comes as no surprise, then, that 66 percentof us are currently on a diet.

Whether opting for a tried-and-tested Mediterranean diet or a relative newcomer, like intermittent fasting, as a nation we understand that our diet, our weight, and our health are intricately linked.

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), “physical activity is an important part of maintaining healthy weight, losing weight, and keeping extra weight off once it has been lost.”

The HSS recommend at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise every week, but less than 25 percent of adults manage to hit this target.

Where does sex fit into this?

Well, sex is good for our health, it burns calories, and it makes us happy. You are, of course, unlikely to burn as many calories between the sheets as during a heavy gym session, but exercise alone may not be the panacea for weight loss we give it credit for, according to a recent study.

So, get ready to look at the obvious and some of the more surprising reasons why sex should be firmly integrated into our plan to reach and maintain a healthy weight, regardless of whether you are a gym buff or not.

Sex is exercise

In 2013, Prof. Antony D. Karelis — along with colleagues from the Université du Québec à Montréal in Canada — studied exactly how many calories we burn when we get our groove on.

Prof. Karelis explains in his article in the journal PLOS ONE that only a handful of studies have attempted to shine the spotlight on the physiological effects during partnered sex with human subjects. All previous studies showed an increase in heart rate.

For his study, Prof. Karelis worked with 21 heterosexual couples, aged between 18 and 35.

The couples were asked to have sex once per week for a period of 4 weeks, while wearing an activity tracker that allowed the research team to calculate how much energy they spent each time.

A sexual encounter included foreplay, intercourse, and at least one orgasm by either partner, then “ended at the couple’s discretion,” as the authors explain.

Here is what the team found.

Men burned on average 101 calories and women 69 calories when they had sex. The average intensity was higher than walking but lower than jogging, Prof. Karelis explains, putting it firmly in the category of moderate-intensity exercise.

This means that each time we have sex, it counts toward our 150 minutes of weekly exercise recommended by the HSS.

If that’s not appealing enough, the data revealed more.

‘More pleasant’ than a gym workout

The range of calories burned during sex varied considerably. At the lower end, men burned 13 calories and women 11.6, while at the top of the range, men shifted 306 calories and women 164.

Let’s look at these numbers into the context of how long each sexual encounter lasted. While the average duration of foreplay, intercourse, and orgasm was 24.7 minutes, the actual time the couples spent having sex ranged from 12.5 to 36.9 minutes.

Whether the top calorie-burners had more vigorous sex or just took their sweet time isn’t clear from the data, but we can draw some conclusions. If we want to increase our calorie loss during sex, we can either get more actively involved, keep at it for longer, or a combination of both.

Prof. Karelis also compared sex with regular gym exercise. He found that men burned between 149 and 390 calories during a 30-minute, moderate-intensity session on the treadmill, while women burned between 120 and 381.

When asked to compare the two activites, all of the men and 95 percent of the women in the study said that sex was more pleasant than pounding the treadmill.

So, we are not only making considerable headway toward reaching our 150-minute weekly exercise goal when we have sex, we also stand to gain more pleasure than from a gym visit.

Exercise may not equal weight loss

While some may argue that a study on healthy, young individuals may not be representative of the general population, the participants included a wide spread of weight categories.

Body mass index (BMI) for men varied between 19.5 and 31, putting at least some of the men in the overweight and obese category. For women, the range was from 16.9 to 26.6, meaning some of the women were underweight and some were overweight.

The study doesn’t reveal anything about the participants’ weight during the 4 weeks they took part. But if you’re looking to shift some pounds, exercise alone may not be the answer to weight loss we once thought it was, as we reported last week.

Researchers from the University of Bangor in the United Kingdom found no discernible weight loss in women who had taken part in three sessions of circuit exercise training per week for either 4 or 8 weeks, despite burning around 3,400 calories in total during this time period.

On the contrary, the team identified changes in hormones that control appetite in overweight and obese study participants after exercise.

Sex might fill a useful gap here because hormones released during our amorous experiences cause us to eat less.

Sex curbs food intake

The “love hormone” oxytocin is produced in the hypothalamus in our brain as well as in our gastrointestinal tract, and it has been accredited with key functions in sex, empathy, relationship-building, childbirth, and breast-feeding.

Oxytocin levels shoot up when we have sex – specifically, when we experience orgasm. But that’s not all the love hormone can do.

Dr. Elizabeth A. Lawson — from the Neuroendocrine Unit at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston — explains in an article in the December edition of Nature Reviews Endocrinology that “experiments in rodents, nonhuman primates and humans consistently show that oxytocin reduces caloric consumption.”

She adds that men ate fewer calories, particularly in the form of fat, after receiving 24 international units (IU) of oxytocin in a nasal spray in one study.

It’s important to note that oxytocin doesn’t stick around in our bodies for very long. Within 2–8 minutes of being released, half of hormone will be gone.

The after-effect of a single sexual encounter on our food intake will therefore only ever be transient. Still, every little helps, and a temporary curb on eating after sex is sure to contribute to overall weight loss.

Sex and weight management

Now that we’ve looked at the benefit of sex when it comes to burning calories and temporarily putting a halt on eating, how likely is it that we are going to lose weight by having sex?

That probably depends on how easy it is to incorporate sex into your personal schedule. Finding time to be romantic sounds easy, but the stark reality of busy lives make it less tenable for some.

However, it is worth reminding ourselves that sex has a plethora of health benefits, and, unlike a gym visit, you don’t have to stray far from your bedroom — or other location of personal preference — to make it happen.

So, if you are looking to shed a few pounds in the lead up to the peak holiday season, why not make the time to spend with your partner, enjoy sharing some intimate moments, and bask in the full effect that all that oxytocin and calorie loss will hopefully have on your scales.

You might find that your 2018 diet plan will easily accommodate sex as an indispensable component.

Although all men have a prostate—unless it’s been removed—many of them are unaware of its role. First off, the prostate is located between a man’s rectum and bladder. Its main function is to produce fluid that is expelled during ejaculation.

If you’re a male over the age of 50, your doctor has either encouraged you to undergo a prostate exam or maybe you’ve already experienced one. This is because the prostate is a common area for men to develop cancer. The risk of prostate cancer increases with age, which is why going for annual exams can help detect problems early on.

Many doctors are now recommending prostate massages because they have been found to help relieve symptoms of various health problems. Although there aren’t too many studies regarding prostate massages, the preliminary findings look promising, and many theories do suggest there are some benefits. Below you will uncover some of these benefits.

Benefits of prostate massages

Erectile dysfunction: Dr. Joshua R. Gonzalez explained, “The theory behind the potential benefit involves an improvement in blood flow resulting from vigorous milking or massaging of the prostate. Because erections are largely the result of good blood flow, any increase could potentially lead to better boners.”

Painful ejaculation: If it hurts to ejaculate, it could be a sign of infection or inflammation. A prostate massage can help ease inflammation, which reduces pain while ejaculating. Another cause of painful ejaculation is tight pelvic floor muscles, which a prostate massage can loosen up. Dr. Gonzalez added, “Manual manipulation of those muscles during prostate massage can further alleviate ejaculatory pain. This is definitely something you would want a specialist to work on with you. There are even physical therapists that specialize in treating your pelvic floor muscles.”

Prostatitis: Prostatitis is a condition that causes inflammation of the prostate as a result of a bacterial infection. Symptoms of prostatitis include burning while urinating, painful ejaculation, weak urine stream, and discomfort in the perineum, which is behind the scrotum. Although the studies are limited on how prostate massages can improve prostatitis, some doctors suggest that at least five percent of their patients experience improvements in symptoms as a result.

The bright lights of the holiday season aren’t just for decoration; they can also help regulate your mood.

In late fall and winter, shorter daylight hours leave many people with little to no sun exposure, signaling the brain to create too much of the sleep-regulating hormone melatonin.

This overproduction of melatonin leads to seasonal affective disorder (SAD), a mood disorder that affects an estimated 10 to 20 percent of the population.

SAD Differs from Depression

Major depression is a disease in which your brain’s pleasure responses are broken. You may have a loss of appetite, fatigue, trouble sleeping and feelings of hopelessness. Depressed people often have a harder time managing their symptoms in the winter. But when depressive symptoms are only affecting you in the winter, it’s considered seasonal affective disorder (SAD).

SAD Affects Men and Women Equally

Historically, researchers have considered women to be more likely to experience seasonal depression. But psychiatrists are increasingly finding that’s not the case. “The classic crying and melancholic depression is more the norm of expression in women. But men express things differently, showing depression with more irritability, anger or frustration,” said Dr. Andrew Angelino, director of psychiatry at Howard County General Hospital.

Ways to Reverse SAD

If you can’t get outside during daylight hours, there are ways to help reverse your body’s creation of too much melatonin.

“If you find that you’re prone to getting the blahs in the winter months or you know you have depression and are taking your medicine, you can also get a light box,” says Dr. Angelino.

Absorbing natural, full-spectrum light regulates hormones in the brain, and helps keep your moods stabilize. In addition to obtaining a light box, Dr. Angelino recommends these five tips to help chase away the seasonal blues:

Practice wellness. A daily routine of at least 7 hours of sleep, a 30-minute exercise routine and limiting your alcohol intake can go a long way in fighting the blues.

Stand in the sun. Take a break from your desk. At least 15-30 minutes of sunlight, especially in the early morning, helps to regulate your internal clock.

Cultivate some winter hobbies. The chilly weather may freeze your weekend gardening plans but it may be the best time to catch up on your reading list or tackle a new project in the house. Adjust your leisure activities to fit the seasons.

See a doctor if natural interventions are not successful. If your symptoms are regularly interfering with your everyday life, make an appointment with your doctor.

New study finds that testosterone supplementation enables a reduction in the risks of major cardiovascular events, such as strokes, heart attacks, and death.

In a recent study, a research team from the Intermountain Medical Center Heart Institute studied 755 male patients, ranging from 58-78 years, who all had severe coronary artery disease, the most common type of heart disease. They were separated into three different groups, receiving varied doses of testosterone, administered intravenously or by gel. At the end of the first year, 64 patients who weren’t taking any testosterone supplements had serious adverse cardiovascular events, whereas only 12 who were taking medium doses of testosterone and 9 who were taking high doses did. At the end of 3 years, 125 patients who had not received testosterone therapy suffered severe cardiovascular events, whereas only 38 medium-dose and 22 high-patients did. Patients who were given testosterone as part of their follow-up treatment did much better than patients who had not been given testosterone supplementation. The non-testosterone-therapy patients were 80 percent more likely to suffer an adverse event. “Although this study indicates that hypo-androgenic men with coronary artery disease might actually be protected by testosterone replacement, this is an observational study that doesn’t provide enough evidence to justify changing treatment recommendations,” said Dr. Muhlestein, co-director of cardiovascular research at the Intermountain Medical Center Heart Institute. “It does, however, substantiate the need for a randomized clinical trial that can confirm or refute the results of this study.” This new study confirms the findings of a previous study from the Intermountain Medical Center Heart Institute, which found that testosterone therapy did not increase the risk of experiencing a heart attack or stroke for men with low testosterone levels and no prior history of heart disease.

The Intermountain Medical Center research team will presented their study at the American College of Cardiology’s 65th Annual Scientific Session on Sunday, April 3 at 12:15 p.m., CDT.

The Intermountain Medical Center Heart Institute is made up of clinical and research professionals who aim to advance cardiovascular treatment. Intermountain Medical Center is the flagship facility for the Intermountain Healthcare system, which is based in Salt Lake City.

Big Sugar seems to have copied the Big Tobacco playbook, a new report contends.

More than four decades ago, a study in rats funded by the sugar industry found evidence linking the sweetener to heart disease and bladder cancer, the paper trail investigation reports.

The results of that study were never made public.

Instead, the sugar industry pulled the plug on the study and buried the evidence, said senior researcher Stanton Glantz, a professor of medicine and director of the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education.

Glantz likened this to suppressed Big Tobacco internal research linking smoking with heart disease and cancer.

“This was an experiment that produced evidence that contradicted the scientific position of the sugar industry,” Glantz said. “It certainly would have contributed to increasing our understanding of the cardiovascular risk associated with eating a lot of sugar, and they didn’t want that.”

In response to the investigation, The Sugar Association issued a statement calling it “a collection of speculations and assumptions about events that happened nearly five decades ago, conducted by a group of researchers and funded by individuals and organizations that are known critics of the sugar industry.”

The new paper focuses on an industry-sponsored study referred to as Project 259 in documents generated by the Sugar Research Foundation and its successor, the International Sugar Research Foundation, and dug up decades later by Glantz and his colleagues.

Researchers at the University of Birmingham in England conducted Project 259 between 1967 and 1971, comparing how lab rats fared when fed table sugar versus starch. The scientists specifically looked at how gut bacteria processed the two different forms of carbohydrate.

Early results in August 1970 indicated that rats fed a high-sugar diet experienced an increase in blood levels of triglycerides, a type of fat that contributes to cholesterol.

Rats fed loads of sugar also appeared to have elevated levels of beta-glucuronidase, an enzyme previously associated with bladder cancer in humans, the researchers said.

Months after receiving these results, the International Sugar Research Foundation failed to approve an additional 12 weeks of funding that the Birmingham researchers needed to complete their work, according to the authors behind the new investigation.

“The investigator they funded came back to them with preliminary results, which were showing these adverse effects of sugar and said, ‘I need a few more weeks to finish the study,'” Glantz said. “They just looked at it and said no, and shut the whole thing down. As far as we can tell, nothing was ever published.”

Project 259’s timing was critical, said Glantz and lead author Cristin Kearns, a postdoctoral fellow with the UCSF School of Medicine who reportedly discovered the industry documents.

During that period, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration was weighing whether to take a hard line on high-sugar foods.

“Had those results been made public, sugar would have gotten a lot more scrutiny than it did,” Kearns said.

The Sugar Association says Project 259 was significantly delayed and over budget, “and the delay overlapped with an organizational restructuring with the Sugar Research Foundation becoming a new entity, the International Sugar Research Foundation,” according to its own review of archive material.

“There were plans to continue the study with funding from the British Nutrition Foundation, but, for reasons unbeknown to us, this did not occur,” the industry trade group’s statement says.

“Throughout its history, the Sugar Association has embraced scientific research and innovation in an attempt to learn as much as possible about sugar, diet and health,” the statement continues. “We know that sugar consumed in moderation is part of a balanced lifestyle, and we remain committed to supporting research to further understand the role sugar plays in consumers’ evolving eating habits.”

Nutritionist Sharon Zarabi is director of the bariatric program at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. She said the new investigation reveals “the power food industry lobbyists have on government guidelines that instruct us on what to eat.”

Zarabi noted that “most research studies that support specific foods are funded by industry and this oftentimes skews the results.”

Although these revelations might produce a media furor, they’re unlikely to change the recommendations coming from dietitians, said Kelly Hogan, clinical nutrition and wellness manager at the Mount Sinai Dubin Breast Center in New York City.

That’s because subsequent research has revealed the effect that diets high in sugar can have on long-term health. People need to follow a balanced diet if they want to eat healthy, and that doesn’t mean just focusing on added sugars, she said.

“You can’t point out one single thing and blame that on any sort of health crisis, either now or 40 years ago,” Hogan said. “It’s never just one thing, whether that’s sugar or saturated fat or whatever the trendy thing might be.”

The new paper was published online in November in the journal PLOS Biology. It was funded by a grant from the U.S. National Cancer Institute, among others.

Before the Clinton years and well after the Michael Douglas days, the notion of oral sex has been considered taboo. Now, oral sex is more openly discussed in movies, TV shows, and magazines as a pleasurable part of a healthy adult relationship. However, there’s much about oral sex that sexually active people should know before performing fellatio or cunnilingus on their partner.

In the U.S., 27 percent of men and 19 percent of women have had oral sex in the past year, according to a 2010 National Survey of Sexual Health and Behavior (NSSHB). Meanwhile in 2012, two-thirds of young Americans aged 15 to 24 have engaged in oral sex. Most of these young adults have tried oral sex before they engage in intercourse because of the popular misconception that oral sex is “risk-free,” but that’s not the case.

The surprising facts below will clarify misinformation surrounding sex, especially oral sex, and what can happen to the human body.

1. Men give oral sex as much as they receive it, especially older men.

Contrary to popular belief, men, especially older men, give as much oral sex to women as women give to men. A 2010 study published in The Journal of Sexual Medicine found only 55 percent of men in the 20 to 24-year-old range admitted to giving oral sex in the past year compared to 75 percent of women. In the 30 to 39 age range, 69 percent of men have given women oral sex compared to 59 percent of women. This pattern suggests that the more you age, the more reciprocal you are in oral sex.

2. Giving oral sex can lower the risk of preeclampsia.

Pregnant women who perform oral sex on their male partner can lower their risk of preeclampsia. A 2000 study published in the Journal of Reproductive Immunology found women a strong correlation between a diminished incidence of preeclampsia and the frequency at which a woman practices oral sex. If a woman had relatively little prior exposure to the father’s semen, she would have a higher risk of developing the condition compared to if she performed oral sex and swallowed his semen.

The researchers believe this occurs because of the development of immunological tolerance via oral insertion and gastrointestinal absorption of the semen. This supports the notion that a greater frequency of sex with the same partner who is the father of a woman’s child, can significantly decrease her chances of developing preeclampsia. The pregnancy complication is characterized by high blood pressure, and can sometimes be accompanied by fluid retention and proteinuria.

Typically, the nausea that occurs during the first few months of pregnancy, morning sickness, can be remedied with a teaspoon of ginger or mint. However, a 2012 paper written by SUNY-Albany psychologist Gordon Gallup suggests pregnant women who swallow the father’s semen can actually cure their episodes of morning sickness. The woman’s body will first reject the father’s semen upon ingestion as an infection and then react to it by vomiting, according to Gallup. After this, the woman’s body will build up a tolerance to it and alleviate the morning sickness symptoms.

4. Sperm via oral sex can lower the risk of depression.

Semen’s mood altering chemicals can elevate mood, increase affection, and ward off depression. A 2012 studypublished in the journal Archives of Sexual Behavior found seminal fluid may contain antidepressant properties and may significantly lower depression in women who had oral sex and sexual intercourse. The researchers also noted women who described themselves as “promiscuous” yet used condoms, were as depressed as women who practice absinthe. This implies how it’s not the semen, not the sex that made the women in this study happy.

5. Oral sex can give you cancer.

The link between oropharynx cancers and HPV has been growing overtime in the U.S. A 2011 study published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology found the proportion of cancers associated with human papillomavirus (HPV) rose from 16 percent to 72 percent from the late 1980s to the early 2000s, particularly among Caucasian middle-age men. The sexually transmitted disease (STI) can cause genital warts or present itself without symptoms. If it’s left untreated, it can also cause cancers including cervix, anus, penis, vagina, and head and neck, among many others.

6. You can get STDs from oral sex.

STDs are commonly transmitted through vagina and anal sex, but unprotected oral sex can also put you at risk for them. HPV, gonorrhea, syphilis, herpes, and hepatitis B can all be spread through oral sex. According to Planned Parenthood, the human immunodeficiency virus is less likely to be transmitted through this.

Oral sex is still sex and should always be performed with caution and preferably with a condom on to reduce the transmission of STDs.